


Diamond Heart

by asroarke



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cheesy, Country Music, Everyone hates finn, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Mutual Pining, POV Bellamy, Secret Relationship, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, fake dating flarke, jealous!Bellamy, lots of writing love songs "platonically", secret dating bellarke, songwriter!Bellamy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 11:58:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13880400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asroarke/pseuds/asroarke
Summary: The real torture was taking home her recordings and listening to her singing as he laid in bed. Each song was so soft, so genuine… in a way that none of the songs she shared with Finn would ever be. There was such an honesty in her lyrics that reminded him of those songs that made him fall in love with music all those years ago. And there was something so painful about listening to something so beautiful directly from the person he couldn’t stop thinking about. His mind kept wandering to what she was doing when she wrote them, to what experiences she drew from, to who she might have been thinking of…He felt a sharp pang in his chest when he admitted to himself that he hoped it was him she was thinking of. He knew better, of course… but when it was late enough, he let his thoughts drift there. He let himself imagine that she was singing for him. After all, he was already singing for her.The Country Music fic where Bellamy can totally handle Clarke's fake relationship with Finn Collins. He is not jealous at all. The songs he writes just coincidentally happen to make it sound like he's jealous.





	Diamond Heart

When Bellamy took the job at Griffin Records, he probably should have foreseen just how many posters of Finn Collins and Clarke Griffin he would see splattered across the walls. After Wells Jaha, the two of them were the record label’s most prized possession. And Wells Jaha didn’t make nearly as many headlines as the two of them did. Their relationship was every PR team’s dream, to be honest.

He had only been working here for a week and had yet to meet any of the major artists, but he knew that Clarke Griffin was stopping by today. Even though he hadn’t officially met her, he knew enough about her to know that he’d rather keep their face-to-face time to a minimum.

Clarke Griffin was the damn princess of country music, no doubt thanks to her mother’s long headlining career and her dad running the label. And the only reason her career took off as quickly as it did was because she paired up with her boyfriend, Finn Collins, and the media loves a good love story. Bellamy vividly remembers attending one of their concerts last year after Octavia begged him to go and being thoroughly exhausted by how over the top they portrayed their relationship on stage. Their songs lacked any real depth and they all sounded like the same damn love song. The irony of the situation hadn’t eluded Bellamy, since he was now going to help write all those variations of the same shallow love song.

“She really isn’t anything like how she reads on stage,” Miller explained, and Bellamy let out a huff. The two of them were in his office. Miller was throwing a balled-up piece of paper up in the air and catching it as he spoke… which Bellamy found incredibly distracting. “Griffin is way more down to earth than Collins, and she comes up with more of her own stuff than Jaha.”

“Is any of it any good?” Bellamy smirked, not holding his breath that the princess had much more in her than a pretty voice and face that would sell concert tickets.

“Yeah, but it kind of goes against the image the label has built up for her, so a lot of it gets thrown out,” Miller replied, and Bellamy rolled his eyes.

“More likely she couldn’t pull it off,” he mumbled, opening up his drawer to find the folder he put together for the meeting in an hour. “I mean, she’s a girl that got her career because of her parents and her boyfriend. Without them, she’s just like every other pop country blonde who can play guitar, except with maybe less talent.”

Miller opened his mouth to argue but was interrupted when Bellamy’s door swung open. His eyes flickered up, seeing the blonde in question in his doorway. “Hi, talentless blonde here,” Clarke Griffin smirked, crossing her arms, and Bellamy knew his face was bright red. “Your door was cracked open and I was going to pop in to introduce myself, but it seems you already know me well enough.”

“Bellamy, this is Clarke,” Miller said before covering his mouth with his hand. Bellamy blinked at her, unable to form an apology strong enough to cover the _worst_ first impression in the history of first impressions.

“FYI, I play piano too,” she snapped, raising an eyebrow at him.

“I am so—”

“Save it. See you two at the meeting,” she groaned before slamming the door shut behind her. Bellamy slammed his head onto his desk, cursing himself for putting his damn foot in his mouth on his very first week.

“Do I need to tell you how bad that was or are you good?” Miller asked, his chair squeaking as he stood up. Bellamy waved him off, resolving to spend the next hour trying to figure out how to recover from the very _stupid_ thing Clarke just caught him saying.

Clarke acted as if nothing happened when Jake Griffin introduced them at the meeting. Bellamy stayed as quiet as he possibly could, praying that he didn’t attract anymore attention from Clarke than he already had.

Luckily, she was preoccupied with listening to the demos the group had made for them and seemed pretty in love with the newest one that Jasper and Monty had been working on.

He caught up with her in the hallway when she was about to leave. “Look, about earlier,” he started, and she turned to look at him with a smirk on her face. “I was way out of line.”

“It’s nothing I haven’t heard a hundred times before and won’t hear a hundred times more,” she replied, and Bellamy blinked a few times at her. Miller was right. She wasn’t quite the person she appeared to be on stage. There was a toughness to her that he wasn’t expecting. She came off a lot older in person than she did on stage, where she basically looked like a teenager. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell my dad what you said about me,” she huffed before turning back down the hallway.

 

* * *

 

Bellamy tapped on the conference room table, trying not to be annoyed that Finn Collins was now half an hour late. “Why couldn’t he have just come in yesterday when Clarke was here?” he grumbled quietly to Miller, thankful that Jake was out in the hallway trying to call Finn.

“They don’t come in on the same days,” Harper said from across the table, and Bellamy rolled his eyes. That was unnecessarily difficult and a waste of time, if he was being honest. Everyone who worked at the label basically had to have the same meeting two days in a row to accommodate them when it would be far easier for Finn and Clarke to come in on the same day.

“Well, they used to,” Monty whispered, and Bellamy raised an eyebrow at Miller.

“Let’s just say things move quicker when we separate them as much as possible,” Murphy grumbled from the end of the table. Bellamy shook his head, confused but not willing to ask anymore questions for now. He had put his foot in his mouth enough for one week.

As soon as they all fell back into uncomfortable silence, Jake came in with Finn Collins, who seemed way too relaxed about showing up half an hour late. It took all of five minutes for Bellamy to realize why everyone else at the table seemed to dread today’s meeting with Finn.

For starters, he argued with Jake about _everything_. Finn Collins had an opinion on everything from album covers to transportation to which venues he wanted to perform in, none of which was actually on the docket for today’s meeting. On top of that, none of the songs that they had pitched to him seemed good enough, despite the fact that Clarke had liked most of them yesterday. The meeting took twice as long as it did with Clarke, and Bellamy had a migraine by the time it was over.

“How are the two of them even together?” Bellamy groaned as soon as he double checked his office door was actually shut this time.

“They aren’t,” Miller said, and Bellamy cocked his head to the side. “Why do you think we have separate meetings for them? If Clarke had been there, she would have punched him about fifteen minutes into it.”

“What do you mean they aren’t together?” Bellamy asked, thinking back to every cutesy interview he had seen of the two of them, all the photos of them all over town, the fact that every damn tabloid in the city was all over their relationship.

“Well, they used to be. Then, he cheated on her. But the label kept that story under wraps because their relationship sells albums,” Miller huffed, and Bellamy clenched his eyes shut. All that crap was _fake_. He shouldn’t be surprised, of course. It wasn’t unheard of. Bellamy was just mad that he hadn’t considered it. He fell for the lie just like everyone else, which tells him just how good the two of them were at selling the ruse.

 

* * *

 

Much to his relief, neither Miller nor Clarke had let it slip to any of his coworkers that he made a complete and total ass of himself. He was enjoying the party at Jasper’s house, finally starting to feel at ease with all these people after a long week of trying to work with Finn Collins’ stupid ideas.

“Guess who I snuck in!” a woman shouted, and Jasper jumped off the couch excitedly.

“Who is that?” Bellamy asked.

“Raven,” Miller whispered, and Bellamy took a sip of his beer. “She’s the girl Finn was cheating on Clarke with, or it was kind of the other way around. Anyway, they’re best friends now.”

Bellamy glanced up to see Jasper, Clarke, and who he assumed was Raven walking into the living room. Clarke was dressed considerably differently than he had ever seen her, either in person or in the tabloids. She was wearing cutoffs and a loose flannel shirt. He got up to get another drink as she pulled off her baseball cap and shook her hair out.

When he came back in, Clarke was plopped down between Monty and Jasper with an amused look on her face. “And then she showed up with this dumb hat and sunglasses and was like this will be the perfect disguise,” Clarke chuckled, leaning forward to glare at a smirking Raven.

“Turns out, paparazzi are not as dumb as I thought. But who cares? I got you here, didn’t I?” Raven teased, and Clarke grabbed the drink out of Raven’s hand.

The party took off from there, and Bellamy was quickly realizing that Raven and Clarke was all it took to make a relaxed house party feel like one of those parties he would see people have in the movies. Clarke very clearly was avoiding Bellamy, and he avoided her too. Instead, he spent most of his evening with Miller and Raven, whom he learned was actually dating Finn long before Clarke came along.

“You should have seen the black eye he ended up with,” Raven grinned proudly into her drink, and Miller burst out laughing. “I was hoping that Clarke would go all ‘Before He Cheats’ on his ass, but apparently, she isn’t that country,” she shouted in Clarke’s direction, and Bellamy saw the blonde whip her head around to glare at Raven.

“Just because I didn’t feel like slashing his tires doesn’t mean I’m not country,” Clarke snapped back before downing the rest of her drink.

“Bull. Prove to me that you’re not fake country and slash his tires,” Raven teased, and Clarke glanced down at her phone with a funny smirk.

“Got something better,” Clarke replied as she climbed over the couch to come over to them. She handed her ringing phone over to Raven, her smirk growing as Raven looked down at the phone. Bellamy leaned forward, seeing that Finn Collins was calling her. “Answer it.”

Raven raised her eyebrow in a challenge as she pulled the phone up to her ear. “Hey, Finn,” Raven grinned, and Clarke collapsed on the couch next to Miller, who was buried his face into Clarke’s shoulder with laughter. Bellamy glanced over at Jasper, who was turning the music down. Raven winked at Clarke, before putting the phone on speaker.

“… is if Clarke is there. Why are you answering her phone?”

“Because I’m the greatest lover Clarke has ever had, and we never would have met if it weren’t for you,” Raven deadpanned, and Bellamy nearly spit out his drink. The entire group was now gathered around with amused expressions on their faces, everyone trying to hold in their laughter.

“Great, my ex-girlfriend turned my other ex-girlfriend into a lesbian. Can I please just talk to Clarke?” he groaned, a static noise coming from his side of the call.

“Bisexual, you dumb fuck,” Clarke snapped, yanking the phone from Raven’s grasp. Raven erupted into laughter as Clarke took the call into the other room, a little too drunk to be walking straight.

“I know we all technically work for that asshole, but fuck if I don’t love screwing with him,” Murphy said, raising his glass, and the entire room joined in.

 

* * *

 

Bellamy stepped out onto the back porch with his glass of water, desperately trying to sober up. It had been a long time since he got this drunk… but with all the drinking games, he lost count of how much he had been drinking. It didn’t help that when playing Ring of Fire, Clarke picked him to be her “mate”, meaning he had to drink whenever she drank.

He stepped out just when Jasper pulled out Just Dance, because there was no way in hell Bellamy was going to embarrass himself in front of his coworkers this early on.

When the door creaked open, he was surprised to see the princess herself stepping outside. “Blake,” she said, cocking her head to the side.

“Griffin,” he countered, and he could feel her sizing him up. While she hadn’t brought up what he said about her, he could still see it in her thoughts every time she looked in her direction. “Shouldn’t you be inside?”

“Monty and Harper are awkwardly flirting but are not aware that’s what they’re doing. I came out here to keep from blurting out that they should just get a room,” she replied, plopping down in the seat next to him. “Also, wanted to talk to you.”

“Why?” he blurted out, and a chuckle escaped Clarke’s lips at his reaction. “Is this about what I said about you? Because I’m really fucking sorry about that.”

“Oh, I know you are,” she laughed, and he threw his head back in a groan.

“I didn’t even know about you and Finn’s situation, so it was extra shitty of me to imply that you owe any of your career to that tool,” he murmured, feeling the alcohol slur his words a little.

Clarke let out a sigh before bringing her glass to her lips. He glanced up at her, seeing that she was staring off into the distance. “You weren’t wrong,” she whispered, and Bellamy felt a strange pang in his chest at those words.

“Clarke—”

“I only wanted to get into music because of my parents. And Finn was what made my career take off. You were not wrong about that,” she said, glancing over at him. “Doesn’t mean I’m happy about any of that.”

Bellamy swallowed, looking down at his glass of water. He still shouldn’t have said it, regardless of if he thought Clarke could hear him or not. It wasn’t her fault that the system worked for her and it screwed him over. She had a leg up in getting into the country music game, meanwhile Bellamy has been busting his ass for years, only to get hired as a songwriter for her and Finn.

“What’s your plan?” Clarke asked, and he blinked a few times as he studied her. She seemed remarkably sober for someone he just watched drink Murphy under the table. “I’ve heard your demos. I know you aren’t going to be a songwriter for other people for long.”

“You’ve heard my demos?” he asked, fairly certain that only Jake Griffin and Marcus Kane actually listened to them when he applied for the job.

“After you talked shit about me, I was curious as to what made you so damn confident,” she smirked, nudging his shoulder. An unexpected laugh escaped his lips, although he was nervously waiting for her to say anything more about what she thought of what she listened to.

“I don’t have a plan,” he admitted, probably for the first time to someone other than himself. Octavia was under the assumption that he had a grand plan, Jake probably thought Bellamy was going to write for them indefinitely… which he might just to pay the bills.

“Look, I’m sure you don’t want any advice from a talentless pop country blonde,” she said, and he buried his face in his hands in embarrassment, “but save your good stuff for yourself. Only offer the cheesy stuff you wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole to me and Finn. And, you know, maybe don’t talk shit about people if your door isn’t closed.”

“Can we please forget that ever happened? I am a dumbass, okay?” he huffed, and Clarke’s laugh practically echoed off the patio walls.

“Not a chance in hell. When you actually get your shit together and make it, I need to have a good story about what it was like to work with you,” she teased. As soon as she started laughing again, Bellamy felt like a small weight had been lifted off his chest.

 

* * *

 

One of the many things he learned about Clarke was that she was always at the office… as long as she wasn’t touring or performing that week. She practically lived in Jasper’s office some weeks, which explained why a lot of Jasper’s songs got picked up by her and Finn. Clarke had a hand in crafting them, which meant they were more tailored to her.

He and Clarke were _friendly_. He was hesitant to call them friends since he was fairly certain that she still held a small grudge against him for what he said, but it was slowly lessening. When she called him “Bellamy” for the first time, he nearly fell over… since he had gone weeks by “Blake” in that smirking tone of hers.

It took another month for her to show up in his office unannounced, plopping down across from him as if she did this every day. “What are you working on?” she asked as he set his guitar down.

“A song,” he said vaguely, and she cocked her head to the side. “How can I help you, princess?”

“I want to hear what you’ve been in here working on for the past three days,” she replied, and he blinked a few times at the realization that she had been keeping track of how long he had been working on this. “Prove to me that my dad didn’t just hire you for your good looks,” she teased, and he rolled his eyes at her.

“You’re a pain in my ass,” he grumbled as he picked his guitar back up. There was a triumphant grin on her face as she kicked back in her seat.

He didn’t dare look up at her as he got through what he had gotten so far, which was a verse and half a chorus… but he knew he was onto something. It just wasn’t _there_ yet. As soon as he was done, he opened his mouth to explain where he was going with it but slammed it shut as soon as he saw a curious expression on Clarke’s face.

She stood up, gesturing for him to hand the guitar over to her. He rolled his eyes as he handed it over, trying not to grumble about the fact that she was _acting_ like the entitled princess he originally thought her to be. But he shut his mouth as soon as she tested the song out. He listened carefully, noticing that Clarke flipped the order of two of the lines in the chorus… and it made a world of difference.

Before he knew it, the two of them had been locked in his office for three hours churning out the rest of the song that he had been fighting with for three whole days. But by the time they were finished, he could practically _hear_ what it would sound like on stage with Finn and Clarke singing it.

“Not bad for a princess, huh?” she smirked as she moved toward his door.

“Not bad at all,” he confessed, and she walked out the door to head to some photo shoot that she and Finn had to do.

 

* * *

 

Octavia couldn’t stop grinning. He knew she was excited that he was finally taking her to a concert, especially now that he had a connection to get her backstage. He reminded her that he could introduce her to Finn and Clarke at any time, considering his job, but something about this made it much more special. “Remember last time we came to see them?” she asked, poking him in the side.

Bellamy rolled his eyes at the memory. He was just bitter that Finn and Clarke had made it while he was still struggling to get his foot in the door. But he had grown since then, had learned a lot more about the industry from Jake Griffin. Clarke had also confessed to him that her dad snatched him up so he could keep Bellamy close by for when he was ready to take on a new act… a fact that made him feel infinitely better about his future.

Plus, he was now friends with Clarke. He couldn’t even count the number of times the two of them had lunch in his office as they workshopped ideas together. He was at a texting-level friendship with Clarke Griffin, which was a damn feat considering their rocky start.

“Shut up and watch,” he smirked, glancing up at the stage. He tried to hide his cringe when Finn stepped toward Clarke and kissed her cheek. He wasn’t sure how Clarke managed to put on such a tough face when it was clear that all she wanted was to get away from him.

“I have a contract,” she would always groan to him when he asked, and Bellamy nodded somberly. He knew that when she and Finn signed their contract, Clarke thought they were in love. After all, who would think twice about agreeing to appear in a relationship with someone they were actively in love with? She figured that she was already acting that way toward Finn, so it being a requirement of her career wasn’t that big of a deal.

Clarke put up a brave face about the whole thing, but that didn’t mean that Bellamy didn’t wince every time he had to witness their fake relationship. He had seen the real Clarke Griffin… he just wished everyone else could too.

“Isn’t this your song?” Octavia asked, swatting his arm excitedly as Clarke and Finn started performing the song that Bellamy and Clarke had worked on together.

“Yeah,” he grinned, proud of how well the song had been doing since it was finished. He watched closely as Clarke and Finn swayed to the music, feeling good about the decision to slow the song down.

He felt less good about the fact that Finn planted a kiss on Clarke’s lips just as the song ended, cringing at the excited way the crowd cheered for it. “They are so sweet together,” Octavia whispered, and Bellamy clenched his eyes shut. He technically wasn’t allowed to tell Octavia the truth about their relationship. If he could trust her to keep her mouth shut, he would have admitted it.

Instead, he sat there in silence as his little sister fawned over Clarke and Finn’s sham of a relationship. He kept his eyes on Clarke, noticing that she was a little bit rattled as they started their final song. It wasn’t enough for anyone who didn’t know her to notice, but he knew how to recognize those small twitches of her lips.

When it was time to bring Octavia backstage, Bellamy knew that he was brother of the year. She was freaking out the closer they got to Clarke’s dressing room, despite all the stories he had told Octavia about Clarke that definitely humanized the princess. When they found her, Clarke was talking with another fan who made it backstage… this one much younger than Octavia.

Her parents were excitedly taking pictures as Clarke listened animatedly to the young girl talking to her. He couldn’t help but grin at the sight, especially since the little girl was so cute in her oversized cowboy boots. He nudged Octavia, smirking at the memory of Octavia dressing very similarly once upon a time. After a few more photos, Clarke directed her attention to Bellamy and Octavia.

“Is this Octavia?” Clarke asked with a grin, and Bellamy nodded along. “Hi, I’m Clarke,” she offered with an easy smile, and Bellamy saw Finn step out of his dressing room. As soon as he saw that there were actual fans back here, Finn’s smile snapped back on as he approached Octavia.

He was only vaguely paying attention to the conversation Finn and Clarke had with Octavia. His eyes were trained on Clarke, remembering that it was just half an hour ago that Finn kissed her on stage. He didn’t hear Octavia when she asked him to take a picture. It took until Clarke raised an eyebrow at him for him to remember what they were doing.

He mumbled his apologies as Finn and Clarke gathered around Octavia for the photo. He managed to take a few before Finn got called away. Octavia was swiping through the photos excitedly, and Bellamy mouthed, “You okay?” to Clarke while Octavia was distracted.

Clarke waved him off, a common deflection technique she had been using lately. It wasn’t like he checked up on her a lot. She was a grown woman who had been doing just fine before Bellamy stumbled into her life. She didn’t need him looking out for her. But he couldn’t help but notice that the people who were _supposed_ to be looking out for her were the same people who forced her into keeping up this charade with Finn, which was clearly taking a toll on her. 

 

* * *

 

“How is Texas?” he asked as he leaned back at his desk.

“Hot as fuck,” Clarke grumbled, and he couldn’t help but chuckle. “You miss me yet?” she teased.

He rolled his eyes, ignoring the way he cheered up when he saw her calling him. She hadn’t been home in weeks and wouldn’t be back until the tour ended three weeks from now. “You mean, do I miss having someone who steals all my pens and puts her feet on my desk around?”

“God, you’re such a dick,” she murmured, and a loud laugh escaped his lips. “Why did I even call you?”

“That’s a great question, princess. I’m trying to write you songs and this call is interrupting that very important work,” he teased, a huge smile forming on his lips as he spoke.

“You gonna send me what you’re working on?” she asked, already sounding a bit more cheerful than she had that whole phone call.

“You’re supposed to stay focused on your current songs, not new ones,” he reminded, biting his lip as she scoffed at him. He glanced up, seeing Jake Griffin making his way toward his office. “Got to go, princess.”

He hung up just in time for Jake to knock on his door. “Was that Clarke?” he asked, and Bellamy nodded. “She seem okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t she?” Bellamy asked, narrowing his eyes at his boss.

“She’s just been having a hard time with the paparazzi lately. Anyway, Wells really liked the ballad you wrote,” Jake replied, getting down to business.

As soon as Jake left his office, Bellamy got online to see what was going on with Clarke. The article entitled “Finn Collins Ready to Take the Next Step” jumped out at him, and Bellamy wanted to scream as soon as he saw that Finn told an interviewer that he and Clarke were talking marriage.

Apparently, everyone else in the office had seen the news and wasn’t surprised when Bellamy brought it up. “Why didn’t anyone tell me about it?” Bellamy groaned, scrolling through some of the obnoxious tweets covering the story.

“You get a little, uh, weird and overprotective when shit like this happens,” Miller said, and Bellamy’s head jerked up.

“I do not,” Bellamy snapped, and Miller crossed his arms and cocked his head to the side.

“Your reaction to the news basically confirms it, Bellamy.”

Bellamy blinked a few times before deciding to ignore that statement. Miller didn’t know what he was talking about. “Why would Finn even say that anyway? It’s only going to make this harder when the whole charade falls apart.”

“He’s mad at Clarke,” Harper muttered, not taking her eyes off her notebook. “He does this shit all the time. It puts a lot of pressure on her.”

 

* * *

 

Bellamy never really stayed up late unless he had to. But he stayed up tonight so that he could call Clarke once her show was supposed to be over. He was lying in bed going through his email when she called him back.

“You should be asleep. You have to get to work early tomorrow,” Clarke said sleepily, and Bellamy realized she waited until she was back in her hotel to call him back. He could hear her tossing her shoes off and dropping her bag to the floor, and he had a pretty good mental image of how sleepy she probably looked right now.

“What’s going on with Finn? Why did he say that to the interviewer?”

Clarke let out a sigh, and he heard her plop down on her bed. “He’s mad at me right now. He plays games like this to mess with me when he’s mad.”

“What is he mad about?” Bellamy asked, and bit his lip when he was met with too many seconds of silence. He knew this probably wasn’t any of his business, but it wasn’t like Clarke to not talk to him about this kind of stuff. In fact, the two of them had become even closer over the last few months. He liked to think that he knew everything about what was going on with her, even while she was away on tour. After all, he told her everything that was going on in his life.

“He got it into his head that I was seeing someone,” Clarke sighed, and Bellamy furrowed his brows.

“Are you?” he blurted out before clenching his eyes shut. This wasn’t any of his business.

“God, no. When would I have time for that? Between touring and spending all my time at the office with you, who the fuck could I be dating, Bell?”

He sat up, his mind racing a bit after hearing her so casually call him “Bell,” a nickname that was reserved for very few. In fact, only two other people had ever called him that. “Sorry,” Bellamy mumbled, rubbing his eyes. “Why does Finn think you’re dating someone?”

“Wish I knew, but I don’t feel like being in the same room with him long enough to interrogate him about it,” she muttered.

“Hey, you know if these kinds of things happen, you can talk to me about them, right?” he said seriously, still wondering why Clarke hadn’t mentioned it while they were on the phone earlier.

“I know, I just…” she sighed, and Bellamy worried his lip as he waited for her to finish that sentence. “Uh, I just don’t like talking about Finn stuff with you.”

He threw his head back, trying to figure out what that was supposed to mean. When they first met, she had no problem roasting Finn at every possible opportunity. Maybe it had something to do with what Miller was implying, but Bellamy really wasn’t that overprotective. He just wanted to make sure his friend wasn’t getting hurt anymore than she already was.

“Look, it’s been a long night and I’m tired. I’ll text you tomorrow, okay?” she whispered.

“Okay, goodnight princess,” he replied before hanging up.

He tried to fall asleep after the phone call, but he found himself tossing and turning more than usual. He gave in and checked his Twitter, figuring he wouldn’t fall asleep for a while anyway. Jasper was live tweeting his reaction to some romcom, and Bellamy found himself snorting as he scrolled through it. Then, he stumbled across a photo of Finn and Clarke from their performance tonight in Dallas.

It was a far more intense kiss than the one he witnessed at the concert he went to, and a curse escaped Bellamy’s lips at the sight. There was a tight feeling in his chest as he studied the photo, and Bellamy had to loosen his grip on his phone before he fucking broke it.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he sat up, reminding himself that the kiss was fake… just like every interaction between Clarke and Finn. There was no need for Bellamy to get jealous.

His eyes jerked back open at that thought. _Jealous_ , that’s what this was. Bellamy was jealous. It wasn’t a feeling he was used to, at least not in this context. Bellamy had always disliked Finn, immediately bore a lot of resentment toward the guy. But he would never get _angry_ when thinking about Finn before.

He didn’t used to care that much. He cared that being around Finn negatively affected Clarke, of course. But this was different. This was him getting angry because he knew he could be better for Clarke than Finn could be… or at least that Bellamy wanted the chance to be better for Clarke. _When the fuck did that happen_?

 

* * *

 

“You know, Clarke is coming back tomorrow,” Miller said, and Bellamy narrowed his eyes at him. There was an accusation in his tone, but Bellamy wasn’t sure what he was getting at.

The two of them were hanging out on Jasper’s back porch while another weekend party raged on inside. Jasper called it the “last fun night before Finn came back with a bunch of stupid ideas.”

“I am aware,” Bellamy replied before taking a sip of his beer.

“You sent her any of the stuff you’ve been working on?” Bellamy shook his head. He had hardly talked to Clarke since that phone call. She was on tour, and Bellamy threw himself back into his work… figuring that if he ignored the problem long enough it would go away. “You gonna show her that song you wrote for her?”

Bellamy’s head snapped in Miller’s direction, his eyes widening at those words. “I haven’t written a song for Clarke,” he snapped, although technically any song he writes could potentially be a song for Clarke.

“So, ‘Had It Been Me’ has nothing to do with your crush on her?” Miller smirked, and Bellamy swallowed. He knew he would regret letting Miller listening to the demos he had been recording, but he didn’t even consider that Miller would see through Bellamy that easily. “Don’t act so surprised. You literally wrote a song about a guy who is having to watch the girl he is in love with be with someone else. I’m not stupid. I put the pieces together.”

“Miller,” Bellamy sighed, but he didn’t know what to say next. Bellamy was only now coming to grips with these feelings for Clarke, a girl that he definitely couldn’t have. The fact was that until her contract was up, she was publicly Finn Collins’ girlfriend. And the way that Finn was spinning things, Clarke could get roped into keeping the charade up even longer just to prevent Finn from trashing her reputation during the break up. Besides, Clarke only saw Bellamy as her friend. He was the asshole who kept putting his foot in his mouth but could make her smile when she had a shitty day. And that would have to be enough for him.

“It’s really good, by the way. Like start your own career with it kind of good,” Miller said, and Bellamy pressed his lips together. He knew it was good. It was probably one of the best things he had ever written… probably because it was so real. “Clarke would tell you that if she heard it.”

“I can’t show it to Clarke,” Bellamy blurted out.

 

* * *

 

Whatever plan he had to ignore his feelings for Clarke went out the window as soon as he saw that bright smile of hers when she came into his office. It had been so long since he had seen her in person. All he had gotten was occasional videos and photos from the tour, all of which she looked beautiful in. But it was no substitute for the real thing.

The hug probably lingered a little too long… but Bellamy let himself enjoy this moment. After all, he had suffered through many Clarke-less weeks. “So, how much did you miss me?” she smirked, and he couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“Who said I missed you?” he replied.

“Okay, well I missed you, asshole,” she snapped, the grin never leaving her face.

“Aww, you _missed_ me?” he teased before she threw a pen at him.

“Never mind. I forgot you were a dick,” she huffed, and his grin only grew. There was the princess he remembered. “So, I need a favor.”

“You are back five minutes and you’re already asking me for shit?” he smirked.

“Please,” she whined, her bottom lip pouting slightly. He let out a groan, as if he was actually going to say no to whatever Clarke asked for. It wasn’t like she asked for much, all things considered. “I wrote a lot while I was on the road.”

Bellamy raised an eyebrow, wondering if this is why Clarke’s texts became less frequent. To be fair, he wasn’t really texting her either… but that was because he was trying to get over this little crush he had on her. “Did you write something new for you and Finn?”

“No, just for me,” she whispered, and Bellamy leaned forward on his desk because she absolutely had his attention now. “There are a couple little charity events this spring that Finn won’t be able to go to, but it could be a great opportunity for me to test the waters.”

“Have you talked to Jake about this?”

“Not yet,” she sighed, and he narrowed his eyes at her. “I was hoping you could look at what I have and tell me if it’s any good first.” Bellamy blinked a few times as he thought this over. It wouldn’t be any different than when the two of them worked together on something he wrote. But it would probably mean spending even more time with Clarke than he was already planning on… which he both really wanted to do but also knew he shouldn’t. “Please. You’re the only person I trust with this kind of thing.”

And there was no way in hell he could say no when she put it like that.

 

* * *

 

If he thought spending that much time with Clarke was torture, he was sorely mistaken. The real torture was taking home her recordings and listening to her singing as he laid in bed. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting Clarke to come up with since he had never heard anything she had written for herself before, but it certainly wasn’t this.

Each song was so soft, so genuine… in a way that none of the songs she shared with Finn would ever be. There was such an honesty in her lyrics that reminded him of those songs that made him fall in love with music all those years ago. And there was something so painful about listening to something so beautiful directly from the person he couldn’t stop thinking about. His mind kept wandering to what she was doing when she wrote them, to what experiences she drew from, to who she might have been thinking of…

He felt a sharp pang in his chest when he admitted to himself that he hoped it was him she was thinking of. He knew better, of course… but when it was late enough, he let his thoughts drift there. He let himself imagine that she was singing _for_ him. After all, he was already singing for her… not that she had a clue.

It also didn’t help that there was a new push at the label for new material… because Finn passed on every damn thing they had worked on while he and Clarke were on tour. The songs didn’t go to waste, of course. Wells Jaha took a few, and the label was holding onto a few more for one of their newer artists. But it meant that Bellamy had to direct all his attention toward writing a damn love song for Finn Collins and Clarke Griffin to sing _together_.

It took Bellamy weeks to get past the way he would cringe at the thought… but he couldn’t let the jealousy get in the way of him doing his job. It took about half a bottle of Jack Daniels to get him calm enough to start a new project… and he was just drunk enough to let himself think of Clarke as he worked on it.

He thought about her smile, about the sweet way she always handled her fans, about the sleepy way she would answer the phone in the morning… and he just let the words out.

After two weeks, he finally worked up the courage to let Clarke listen to it. He sat at the edge of his seat, studying every movement in her face as she pressed the headphones to her ears. His heart started pounding when he saw her lips quirk into a lopsided smile, and he felt like this was the longest four minutes of his life.

Her facial expression was pensive as she pulled the headphones off, and Bellamy held his breath. “Are you sure you don’t want to save this one for yourself?” Clarke asked, and Bellamy furrowed his brows.

“Did you not like it?”

“No, I loved it,” she said with a soft smile, and Bellamy felt his entire body relax. She loved his song… the song he wrote for _her_. “It’s really beautiful. Too beautiful for you to have to listen to someone you hate singing it.”

Bellamy swallowed, reminding himself that Clarke knew as well as anyone that Bellamy couldn’t stand Finn Collins. But it wasn’t like she knew the real reason it would kill him to hear Finn singing his song.

“I also don’t want to see you giving your best stuff away. And this is one of those songs that kind of needs to be sung by you,” Clarke said carefully, and Bellamy nodded along. She looked down at her lap, biting on her bottom lip.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said, her head popping back up. “Sorry, just remembered I’ve got to get going,” she mumbled as she stood up. Bellamy didn’t even get a “goodbye” off his lips before she was out the door.

 

* * *

 

“I just hope I didn’t overstep earlier,” Clarke’s voicemail continued, and Bellamy rested his head against his headboard. He had missed her call while he was in the shower, which he was instantly upset over. He and Clarke seemed to have less time to be on the phone these days and he hated when he missed the opportunities to talk to her. “It’s just hard for me to listen to you perform that song perfectly and then try and imagine someone like Finn trying to do it justice. If you really don’t want to keep it for yourself, of course, we will take it because it really is an incredible song. I just don’t think it would be as special coming from anyone who isn’t you.”

Bellamy sucked in a breath at those words. Clarke complimented his writing all the time, probably a little too much… so he should be used to it. But there was such a soft fondness in her voice that gave Bellamy a small sliver of hope.

“Fuck, sorry. Long message. Just, yeah, I’m sorry if I overstepped,” she stuttered out, and Bellamy could practically see the flustered look on her face as she spoke. When the voicemail ended, Bellamy sent her a quick text to say that she was right… she was always right.

He pulled up his laptop to listen to the demo again. He was unable to keep from smiling at the realization that Clarke _loved_ his song. Her soft smile was so gentle throughout the whole thing, and he wondered how she didn’t realize it was for her. As if anyone else could have inspired that song…

He clicked on “Had It Been Me” for the first time in weeks, wondering what Clarke would think about this one. He knew she probably shouldn’t hear it. It was easy enough to play the other one off as being about someone else, but this one was so clearly inspired by her. Hell, even Miller caught it.

But maybe Bellamy wanted Clarke to know that the songs were about her. And maybe it was because it was late or because he was just that gone for her, but he emailed the song to her.

He tried not to stare at his phone, waiting for a response… “tried” being the key word. Minutes passed and still no word from Clarke. It was very likely that she had already gone to bed. Or she hadn’t even clicked on it yet.

It was also very likely that she was still up, clicked on it immediately, and now has no idea what to say to Bellamy.

He stumbled into his kitchen to make himself a drink, since that was probably the only way he was going to fall asleep tonight. Otherwise, he’ll just stare at his phone until his princess told him what she thought about his love confession. _Why the hell did he send it to her?_

About half an hour later, Bellamy crawled into bed with the decision to just pretend he didn’t do that _very stupid thing_. But that obviously didn’t work, leading to him tossing and turning in his bed.

Then, he heard a knock on his door. He picked his head up to glance at the clock, realizing it was way too late for any normal person to just stop by. He threw on a shirt as he made his way to the door. His heart nearly stopped when he saw Clarke through the peephole.

“Hey,” he whispered as he opened his door. He mentally cursed himself for not keeping his apartment cleaner.

“Sorry for just showing up in the middle of the night,” Clarke apologized as she stepped inside. She was wearing leggings and a sweatshirt, her hair thrown up messily… his favorite look on her if he was being completely honest. “I got your email.”

Bellamy sucked in a breath, realizing that Clarke was here to talk to him about his song. She was here to let him down easy… because of course, that is the kind of girl Clarke Griffin was. She was about to give him the speech about how much he meant to her as a friend, trying to take any sting from her inevitable rejection away. “Clarke…”

“Just let me talk,” she huffed, her brows creasing as she looked down at her hands pensively. She opened her mouth again, but then shut it quickly.

“Are you going to talk?” he joked.

“I’m trying,” she groaned, throwing her head back. “I’m sorry. I thought over what I was going to say before but now I’m struggling.”

“Clarke, it’s fine. Let’s just pretend I never sent it,” he pleaded. He couldn’t take another second of waiting for her rejection, and he certainly didn’t want to hear whatever speech she had planned. It was stupid of him to send her that song in the first place. And now things were going to be different between them.

“No,” Clarke whispered, and Bellamy ran his fingers through his hair. Of course, the damn princess was going to drag this out when all he wanted to do was crawl back into his bed and hide for the next month.

“It’s fine. I really don’t—” he tried to get out before Clarke stepped toward him, grabbed the collar of his t-shirt, and pulled him down for a kiss. He stood there frozen for a few seconds, trying to make sense of the soft lips pressing against is. When his brain finally registered that Clarke was kissing _him_ , his whole body snapped into focus. His arms wrapped around her as he started kissing her as fervently as she kissed him.

When he pulled his lips away, they were burning with a desperate heat. He reopened his eyes, seeing those gorgeous blue eyes of hers peering back at him. “Wait, come back,” she whispered, and he crashed his lips back into hers as he backed her up against the wall. She whimpered into his mouth as he pressed his whole body against hers. His body shuddered as soon as her fingers combed through his curls, and he tightened his grasp on her waist in response.

He pulled away again, letting his eyes drop down to her bruised lips. “I can’t stop thinking about you, Clarke,” he admitted, his heart fluttering at the sound of Clarke’s breath catching.

“I know the feeling,” she whispered, and he felt his lips tug upward at those sweet words. “I missed you so much while I was on the road.”

“I missed you too,” he replied, cupping her cheek with his hand. Her smile was so tender as she beamed back at him, nothing like the smiles he was used to seeing when she was on stage. This was the real Clarke, not the Clarke who was the master of keeping up appearances. Bellamy got to have the _real_ her, and fuck, he loved the real Clarke.

 

* * *

 

The only way Bellamy could sit through their performances was to keep his eyes fixed on Clarke. Every time his eyes drifted over to Finn Collins, his mind was bombarded with all the stories he had heard over the past year about the shit he had put Clarke through. And before he knew it, he was gritting his teeth and Miller was calling him out for his jealousy.

Bellamy had to fight the urge to correct Miller on that. After all, he wasn’t jealous anymore. He knew Clarke didn’t give a damn about Finn, and Bellamy ended up staying over at Clarke’s apartment more nights than his own… but that was a secret. Not just to protect Clarke’s contract and career, but Bellamy’s too. If this sort of thing got out there, his career would be over before it began. So, he had to settle for quiet glances and stolen moments.

When Clarke and Finn started their final song that Murphy wrote, Bellamy finally started to relax. It wasn’t like Finn pulled anything on stage this time around… so Bellamy wasn’t going to have to see anything that would keep him up at night.

“I’ve been looking for you,” a voice whispered, and Bellamy turned to see Wells Jaha sitting down next to him.

“Shouldn’t you still be backstage?” Bellamy asked, narrowing his eyes at Wells. The two of them hardly spoke to each other outside of meetings, but he knew that Wells was Clarke’s best friend so he wasn’t a bad guy.

“They rearranged the order so I have a bit more time,” Wells explained, keeping his eyes on the stage. “I was wondering if you had plans this Thursday.”

“Uh, I don’t think so,” he stuttered out, although he knew for a fact that Wells had a gig that night since Clarke was going to be there all night.

“My opening act bailed on me.”

“Oh, well there are a couple of local bands I’ve seen lately that I could recommend to you,” Bellamy sighed, leaning back in his chair.

“Bellamy, I’m asking if you are available. I know you’ve been working on your stuff on the side,” Wells smirked, and Bellamy’s eyes widened back at him.

“Did Clarke suggest me?”

“Okay, I would not go to Clarke with this problem because she isn’t exactly unbiased. If I had asked her, of course she would have suggested you,” Wells snorted, and a small smile formed on Bellamy’s face. “You forget that I’ve also been hearing the songs you’ve been writing and heard you perform. Also, Jake suggested it, which basically sealed the deal for me. So, what do you say?”

“You really think I would say no to this?” Bellamy joked, and Wells patted him on the back as he stood up. “Thank you, by the way,” Bellamy remembered to say.

“You don’t have your rehearsal schedule. Don’t thank me yet,” Wells teased as he stepped out.

Bellamy leaned back in his seat, grinning ear to ear as he processed what just happened. It wasn’t exactly a big break, but it was far more visibility than Bellamy had ever gotten. Wells Jaha was a big damn deal, meaning a lot of important people would get to see Bellamy open up for him.

He was too excited to stay in his seat for the rest of the performers, opting to sneak backstage to see Clarke. “What are you so happy about?” Clarke teased as Bellamy closed the dressing room door behind him.

“I’m opening for Wells on Thursday,” he explained, and Clarke practically threw herself into his arms to hug him tightly. He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek as she squealed in excitement.

“Wait, why the fuck didn’t Wells tell me about this?” Clarke finally groaned, and Bellamy burst out laughing. She was already grabbing her phone, sending him a snarky message for keeping this from her.

“He seems to think you have a soft spot for me,” Bellamy teased, and Clarke’s eyes fluttered up to him. “You did great tonight, by the way.”

“Yeah?” she said, putting her phone down to step back toward him. Her arms were wrapped around his neck as she looked up at him with wide eyes, and Bellamy swears this girl was trying to kill him. “What was your favorite song?”

“The one Harper wrote.”

“So, the only one that Finn wasn’t in?” Clarke teased, and Bellamy nodded. She let her hands slide down to his chest as he rested his on her waist. “Please, tell me you aren’t actually jealous.”

“Of course not,” he replied. He knew it was stupid to be jealous of Finn Collins. Their entire relationship was fake, while Bellamy got the real thing.

“Good, because you know that I’m yours,” she whispered before pressing her lips to his. He tightened his hold around her as he groaned into her mouth… letting himself enjoy this stolen moment before something interrupted them.

 

* * *

 

Bellamy felt like he was going to faint as soon as he stepped off the stage. It wasn’t like he hadn’t performed in front of a lot of people before… he had. But never to a crowd that large. All his coworkers were there, all the country music royalty were there, including Clarke and her mom. He nearly collapsed in his dressing room when Jake came in to congratulate him, explaining that the social media buzz was good enough to get Bellamy started.

He was grinning like an idiot by the time Clarke snuck backstage to congratulate him, and that ridiculous grin stayed on his face during the entire after party. And as hard as Clarke tried to kiss the grin off his face later that night, there was no way it was going anywhere any time soon.

“It’s hard to kiss you when you keep smiling like that,” she teased as her lips trailed down his jawline.

“Shut up,” he chuckled as he tangled his fingers in her hair. Her head popped up to look at him, her lips forming a soft smile of their own. “I’m just really happy, okay?”

“I know. Happy looks good on you,” she replied as her thumb traced over his collarbone. He covered her hand with his, loving the way her smile grew at the contact.

“You know,” he whispered, “one of those reporters at the party kept asking me a lot of personal questions.”

“Yeah?”

“Like if I was seeing anyone.”

“You didn’t—”

“Of course not,” he reassured, letting his thumb stroke the back of her hand. Bellamy wasn’t going to say something stupid. He knew that Clarke had a few more months of her contract with Finn. If it ever got out that she was involved with Bellamy, the media would assume that meant she was cheating on Finn… and they wouldn’t hesitate to drag her through the tabloids over that. It would mean the end of Clarke’s career.

“But you wanted to,” she said with the hint of a smirk on her lips.

“Maybe,” he teased. Of course, he wanted to. He wanted to tell anyone that would listen that he had fallen for Clarke. She was all he was thinking about… even in these past few days when he was _supposed_ to stay focused on his big break.

“Hypothetically, if you could have said something, what would you have said?” she asked quietly, and Bellamy pulled her tighter against him.

“That I’ve got a girl I’m crazy about,” he replied, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek.

“And?” she asked, and he threw his head back in a chuckle.

“I wouldn’t say much more than that to a random reporter, princess,” he laughed.

“Well, hypothetically, this is a very nosy reporter that’s asking you,” Clarke teased, and Bellamy pushed her onto her back before seizing her lips in a kiss. Her hands rested on the back of his neck, tugging him closer as she moaned into his mouth. If Bellamy could, he’d stay right here forever.

“I’d say that I love her,” Bellamy whispered, no hint of teasing in sight as he looked into those gorgeous blue eyes.

She blinked a few times, clearly startled by his confession. But it was something that was echoing through his head all week. He just had to tell her. And tonight seemed like the perfect time. It was just the two of them in Clarke’s bed, they were both so happy, and he just felt so _in love_ that he wasn’t sure he could keep it in much longer.

“Well, you probably shouldn’t tell some nosy reporter that before you tell her,” she teased, and Bellamy dropped his head onto Clarke’s shoulder and let out an annoyed groan. “I love you too.”

His head shot up at those words. Clarke was biting her lip as she looked back at him, almost nervously… as if she had a thing to be nervous about. Even if Bellamy hadn’t just told her he loved her, she already _knew_. She had heard every song he had been working on, all of which were, in their own way, a confession that he loved her desperately.

“Yeah?” he grinned as he leaned his head toward hers. She nodded quickly with a growing smile on her lips. “Say it again.”

“I love—” she tried to get out before he crashed his lips onto hers.

 

* * *

 

The only bad thing about his career starting to take off was that it meant he saw Clarke less. He was no longer one of the songwriters, meaning Clarke no longer had an excuse to show up at his office whenever she wanted. Instead, Bellamy counted himself lucky if he ran into Clarke at work… since he was in meeting after meeting.

Bellamy went from having all the time in the world to sneak around to see Clarke and write a song or two, to having every minute of his day meticulously planned out so he could hit every morning radio show, every recording session, every interview, and every performance.

Bellamy was by no means the label’s biggest hit… not even close. But he was recognizable now… which meant he couldn’t just pop over to Clarke’s apartment at the end of the day anymore. No, he had to wait and see which days the paparazzi weren’t camped outside her apartment before he could come up to see her. More often than not, the two of them ended up on the phone from their own separate apartments each night.

“How many more months?” Bellamy grumbled into the speakerphone, throwing his head back on his pillow.

“Two more. Then, I get to play the whole ‘heartbroken’ thing up for a while, roll out some sad songs, and then you can swoop in as the country music bad boy with a heart of gold and make me realize that it is okay to love again,” she snorted, and Bellamy burst out laughing. Clarke had been very upfront with her father about her relationship with Bellamy, trying to get ahead of this in case something were to go wrong in the media. Jake advised that they keep their relationship under wraps for a good while after her public “split” with Finn, which Bellamy understood. It needed to look like a real break up… which meant she couldn’t just all the sudden have a new boyfriend.

“Is there any way the people camped out at your apartment building have left?” he groaned. He hated waking up in the morning without Clarke lying there next to him. Yesterday, he woke up spooning his pillow and was horribly disappointed when he realized it wasn’t his princess.

“No. One of them is now hiding inside the bush by the doorway… apparently not realizing that from my apartment window I have a nice aerial view of him and his camera,” she muttered, and a louder groan escaped Bellamy’s lips. “I know. I miss you too. Hold on.” He furrowed his brows when she hung up on him, irritated that he didn’t even get the chance to tell her he loved her before the call ended. Then, his phone lit up again with a FaceTime call from Clarke, and he let out a sigh of relief.

“Hey, stranger,” he teased once he took the call. Clarke was walking down the hallway, her hair thrown up messily like it always was when she was getting ready to go to bed.

“Hush. You saw me yesterday,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“That was a whole twenty-four hours ago, princess,” he reminded.

“You went months without seeing me while I was on tour and you were just fine,” she grumbled as she jumped onto her bed. For a split second, Bellamy got a nice view of her ceiling fan… then she remembered to prop her phone up so he could see her.

“I also spent that time obsessively writing songs for you. Not to mention how much time I spent checking Twitter and getting angry at all the tweets about how cute you and Collins were together,” he muttered.

“Bellamy, who is my real boyfriend?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Me,” he replied, and a smirk started to form on her face.

“And who do I stay up all night talking to and saying I love you to?”

“Me,” he grinned, and the sweetest little giggle came out of Clarke. “I’m sorry. Just not getting to see you as much is making me grumpy.”

“Because you _love_ me?” she teased before biting her lip.

“Because I love you,” he replied, loving the way her eyes lit up at those words every single time he said them. He turned onto his side, propping up his phone on a pillow.

“I love you too,” she said. “But I do have to go to bed soon.”

“Then, go to bed. Just don’t hang up,” he smirked, and Clarke rolled her eyes as she propped her phone up on the bed beside her. It wasn’t the same as lying in bed beside her… but it as the closest he was going to get for now.

 

* * *

 

Bellamy couldn’t stop tapping his foot. All things considered, he thought he was a pretty patient guy. After all, he had waited quite a long time and will continue to wait for the chance to officially be with Clarke Griffin. But apparently that patience didn’t extend to when Clarke and Finn were half an hour late for their show.

“I guarantee this is because of Finn and not because of Clarke,” Miller reassured, and Bellamy pressed his lips together. That did little to relieve him, though. The only reason they would delay going on this long is if something was _wrong_.

Bellamy was checking his phone again to see if Clarke had gotten back to him when the opening act started. He settled back in his seat, hoping this meant that whatever was going wrong was fixed.

But when their set was over and only Clarke stepped onto the stage, Bellamy’s stomach dropped. Once the cheers quieted down, Clarke leaned toward the microphone and said, “Tonight is going to be a little different. Finn is at home sick.” Bellamy glanced over at Miller who was already dialing Jake. “I know. I’m disappointed too,” Clarke said as soon as the disappointed sighs quieted. “But we still have a good show for you tonight, I promise.”

Bellamy blinked a few times, barely registering that Miller was stepping out of the box to talk on the phone. He just couldn’t believe that Clarke was finally getting her chance to take the stage without Finn. When the band started up, Bellamy immediately recognized the song as one of the ones he and Clarke had worked on but Finn shot down. He fell into a happy little trance as he watched her swaying to the music and singing so beautifully…

“He’s not sick,” Miller whispered as he plopped down next to Bellamy. “No one can get ahold of him.”

“Where is he?” Bellamy huffed.

“Jake doesn’t know. They delayed cancelling the show for as long as they could… and then, it was kind of too late,” he explained, gesturing to Clarke up on the stage. “Although, this is probably the best thing that cold have happened to her.”

“Yeah,” Bellamy grinned, watching Clarke’s ecstatic face as the crowd erupted into applause.

Bellamy waited until the second to last song before sneaking backstage. When Clarke came into her dressing room and saw him, her face lit up. “Bell,” she shouted as she ran and threw herself into his arms, and he started peppering kisses all over her face.

“You did so good, princess,” he whispered, his eyes nearly threatening tears because he was so damn proud of her.

“Yeah? You think so?” she asked, pulling her head back to look at him.

“You were incredible. I mean, you are always incredible. But this was…” He couldn’t find the words to describe what it was like getting to watch her up there. With Finn, everything was so insincere. But this performance was so undeniably Clarke, the version of Clarke that he loved so much. Her smiles were brighter, her performance was more genuine… it was perfect.

Clarke seized his lips, and Bellamy walked her backward until she was up against the wall. “Is this what you felt like that night you opened for Wells?” she asked, and Bellamy nodded. He knew exactly how ecstatic and emotional and just _happy_ she must be feeling right now… it was just a shame that it took until now for her to feel like this.

Bellamy swallowed her giggles as his lips crashed into hers. Her fingers were tugging at his curls while he kept his hands firmly on her waist. In a matter of months, every night could be like this. One of them could be performing somewhere while the other watched excitedly, they could kiss and celebrate in their dressing rooms… and they could go home _together_. No more sneaking around, no more stealing kisses in dark hallways, no more waking up alone. He was holding his perfect future in his arms, and he couldn’t wait for this to become his every day.

A knock on the door startled them apart. Clarke leaned forward to wipe her lipstick off Bellamy’s face as he tried to make his hair look less like Clarke’s fingers had been combing through it. “We found Finn,” Jake said as he came into their dressing room, and Bellamy let out a relieved sigh. Jake handed his phone to Clarke, and Clarke’s eyes widened as she scrolled through whatever he was showing her.

When Clarke handed the phone to Bellamy, he erupted into a coughing fit. The article was from one of the trashier online tabloids… that Bellamy totally read because it made him feel better about his own life. The headlining photo was of Finn and some brunette girl Bellamy didn’t recognize kissing behind one of the bars in town.

“Time to bust out all those songs I wrote when Finn actually cheated on me,” Clarke joked, and Bellamy scrolled down to the photos of all the paparazzi camped outside Finn’s apartment building. No wonder he never made it to the show… he couldn’t get out of his own damn apartment.

“I’ve talked with his agent. He’s holding a press conference tomorrow where he will basically confirm the rumor that he cheated on you,” Jake explained.

“Which is technically true,” Bellamy realized. The real reason for him and Clarke’s break up was because he cheated on her… they were just going to lie about _when_ that happened. “Wait, does this mean Clarke is out of her contract with Finn?”

“Yes, but I am serious about you two holding off on going public,” Jake warned. “If you do it too soon, Finn’s agent will spin it as Clarke cheating on Finn with you. Then, I lose three different clients over the same damn mess.”

“Yes sir,” Bellamy nodded, handing him his phone back.

“You did good, sweetie,” Jake whispered as he pulled Clarke in for a hug. Then, he stepped out of the dressing room and Clarke ran to the door and locked it.

She was all giggles as she threw her arms around Bellamy and peppered his cheeks with kisses. He gripped her face between his hands and crashed his lips onto hers. “I love you so much,” he murmured against her lips, and her hands rested on his chest. “You know I can’t wait to be able to kiss you whenever I want. I’m gonna marry you, Clarke. You know that?”

For a moment, he panicked that he said too much. But when he saw Clarke beaming back at him, his whole body relaxed. “If you go back on that, I’m going to write a song about it,” she teased, and he pulled her in as close as he could.

“I gotta give you something to write about,” he teased, and she swatted his shoulder playfully. “What? Thought you were tired of just singing love songs.”

“I was,” she replied, her grin going wide as she beamed up at him, “but then I met you.”

**Author's Note:**

> come yell at me on tumblr or twitter (@asroarke). hope you guys liked the fic! and as always, comments and kudos are always appreciated.


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